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Mental Health Bill [HL]

Indeed, we have to have much more joined-up working, as the noble Baroness said earlier, between social services and health to ensure that both services are aware of the situation of the family as a whole, not just those who are suffering from mental health problems. The noble Earl, Lord Howe, will not like my saying this, but that is a matter of best practice and ensuring that the services themselves work in the manner that we would deem to be proper. I noted the very sad—indeed, terrible—cases raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. Clearly at the moment not enough is being done to ensure that joined-up working or that the needs of children are properly being taken into consideration. However, I refer noble Lords to the report of the Social Exclusion Unit, Mental Health and Social Exclusion, published in June 2004, which identified at action point 16 the need for better support for parents and their children, and set out a detailed plan of action. Last month, the three-year National Social Inclusion Programme, which co-ordinates cross-government implementation of the action points in the SEU’s report, provided an update on progress. The Action 16 group leading the family, children and carers work is working with the Social Care Institute for Excellence and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to develop cross-cutting guidance for health and social care adult and children’s services. It has also completed a national review of hospital contact and support arrangements. In summary, we believe there is already a legal framework to ensure that children’s needs are assessed and met. However, we recognise that practice inthis area must be improved, hence the need tocover it clearly in the code of practice—not justin the children’s chapter—and to continue policy development in this area. Indeed, we would welcome co-operative work with YoungMinds, Barnardo’s and the NSPCC to ensure that the code of practice is, in their view, adequate. I urge my noble friend Lady Gibson to consider withdrawing her amendment.